Opposition accuses Albanian government of arms smuggling. Recordings are unverified and were released by a prosecuted former deputy prime minister

Albania’s opposition is calling for a criminal investigation into the state arms company KAYO. Former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj released audio excerpts on the evening of Monday, 7 September, on Syri TV, claiming that businessman Ron Yeffet describes a scheme in which weapons and ammunition from African countries would be repackaged in Albania and sent to Ukraine. Syri TV ↗ He gave the interview from Switzerland and says the recording dates from January 2026. We have not independently verified that claim. Gazeta Standard ↗

We were also unable to independently verify the authenticity of the recordings. They were released by a man who has been internationally wanted by Albanian prosecutors since 2023. What can be verified is something else: the company in question is state-owned, its sole shareholder is the Ministry of Defence, and according to his own CV, the current defence minister chaired its board. Albanian Ministry of Defence ↗

How the state company KAYO was created

KAYO is a joint-stock company registered in October 2024 under Law No. 88/2024 on a state company for the production and trade of weapons, ammunition and military technologies. According to the Ministry of Defence, it took over the activities of three arms enterprises dating from the communist era: the explosives plant in Mjekës and facilities in Poliçan and Gramsh. Albanian Ministry of Defence ↗

It is headed by Ardi Veliu, former director general of the Albanian State Police. Euronews Albania ↗

On 29 April 2026, KAYO and Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to build and maintain warships. According to the announcement, Fincantieri was to hold 51 percent and KAYO 49 percent; the industrial plan envisaged around ten patrol vessels between 2026 and 2030, with the Pashaliman shipyard near Vlora as the preferred production site. Prime Minister Edi Rama and Defence Minister Ermal Nufi attended the signing. Fincantieri ↗

That was not the end of it. In early August 2026, representatives of both sides signed the deed of incorporation and articles of association of Fincantieri Albania in Genoa. Following modernisation, it is to operate the naval-base shipyard in the bay near Vlora and build vessels up to 82 metres long. RTSH ↗

Fincantieri is controlled by the Italian state through Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. Fincantieri ↗ Its cooperation with KAYO in itself does not establish involvement in the deals Ahmetaj describes.

What the defence minister’s own CV says

Ermal Nufi took over the Ministry of Defence from Pirro Vengu on 7 March 2026. Albanian Ministry of Defence ↗ His official ministerial CV states that he previously served as deputy secretary-general of the Council of Ministers, chief of staff to the deputy prime minister, and chair of KAYO’s board. Albanian Ministry of Defence ↗

The CV therefore confirms his previous roles, including his leadership of the board of the company he now oversees as minister. His alleged role in the deals described rests solely on an unverified transcript.

What the released excerpts are said to contain

According to a transcript published by Hashtag.al, a man identified as Yeffet speaks about a company in which a private partner would hold 80 to 90 percent and the state 10 to 20 percent, while he himself would not formally appear in it. The transcript names Ermal Nufi as the contact person at the time when he was deputy secretary-general of the Council of Ministers. It identifies other participants as an interpreter and two men, one speaking Ukrainian and the other Russian. Hashtag.al ↗

In the same transcript, he recommends that the Ukrainian partner enter the scheme through a US corporation. The transcript says of the US Embassy in Tirana: "And then we close them up, the American Embassy, we close them up because is the American company." Elsewhere, it refers to contacts in Nigeria and Sudan, hundreds of millions of euros that, according to the speaker, can be earned from ammunition production, and goods being packed in Albania. In response to the objection that every purchase in Ukraine is subject to public procurement, the transcript records the answer that this had been done without it in both France and Italy. Hashtag.al ↗

We have not heard the original audio and have not verified the transcript. Even an authentic recording of such a conversation would not by itself prove that any shipment took place.

What Albanian rules allow for purchases through KAYO

Albanian rules allow direct negotiations with KAYO for some purchases. Government Decision No. 638 of 5 November 2025, signed by Edi Rama, authorises the company to manufacture and sell weapons and regulates supplies to Albanian security and defence bodies. If KAYO states that it can provide the required delivery, under point 9 the purchasing authority enters into direct negotiations with it. If it cannot supply it or does not respond within thirty days, the request is deemed rejected and the authority proceeds under public-procurement rules or rules on procurement in defence and security. Government Decision No. 638/2025 ↗

However, this regulation concerns purchases by Albanian bodies. It neither explains the statement about Ukrainian tenders nor confirms the legality of the deals described in the unverified transcript. The available material does not permit a reliable determination of whether any unlawful conduct occurred.

Who released the excerpts

Arben Ahmetaj was Rama’s finance minister and later deputy prime minister for the same Socialist Party that he now accuses. SPAK is prosecuting him in the waste-incinerator case for corruption, money laundering and concealment of assets. He denies the accusations, calling them political retaliation. Transparency International ↗

He left Albania in early July 2023, before prosecutors’ request for his arrest reached parliament. Euronews Albania ↗ MPs authorised his arrest on 14 July. Balkan Insight ↗ Ten days later, SPAK declared him internationally wanted. Euronews Albania ↗ The prosecution concluded its investigation into the incinerator case in March 2026. BIRN ↗ According to earlier reports, he settled in Lugano and Albania’s Ministry of Justice asked Switzerland for his extradition. Shteg ↗

Read also: Albania detained a wanted man in the incinerator case. That same evening, the street called for Rama’s arrest

Government critics are also treating the excerpts cautiously. Ornela Çuçi, a former Socialist deputy minister of tourism, called on SPAK to act, but made her appeal conditional on the recording proving authentic. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

Questions were already on the table before the recordings

Albania’s parliament has been addressing KAYO’s operations since spring. In April, seven Democratic Party MPs requested an urgent parliamentary question with the defence minister over the lack of transparency in the company’s relationships with private partners. Balkanweb ↗

Nufi replied that KAYO is not a conventional manufacturing company but a structure intended to attract private capital to the military industry. He called it an international model and linked it to Albania’s commitments to NATO. According to him, three million euros from the state budget had gone into the company by then; the rest of the investment was to come from private investors. VoxNews ↗

Ownership links can be documented through the register. An extract from Albania’s commercial register for Advanced Arms Technology, issued on 10 January 2026, records its establishment on 11 November 2025, registration eight days later, a business purpose including small- and medium-calibre small arms and military drones, and two shareholders: UNO18 with 80 percent and KAYO with 20 percent. Albanian commercial register ↗

The extract lists direct shareholders but does not itself show who controls UNO18. Albanian media and Ahmetaj himself claim that Yeffet is behind both it and the military-vehicle supplier Timak Defence. The media also describe him as the intermediary for the Albanian government’s contract with Israeli arms company Elbit Systems, whose value we did not find in a public document. Balkanweb ↗

Opposition MP Belind Këlliçi is demanding the resignations of Rama and Nufi as well as an SPAK investigation. Albeu ↗ Reporter Klodiana Lala is also calling for the excerpts to be examined. Albeu ↗

Limits of this view

Our reporting on the September accusations themselves draws mainly on Albanian media that are critical of Rama’s government. We checked the documentary part against primary sources: Fincantieri’s press release, the Albanian Ministry of Defence website, the text of the government decision and a commercial-register extract.

In sources we reviewed through the evening of 8 September, we found no substantive response from Rama or Nufi to the content of the excerpts, no public SPAK announcement that it had opened an investigation, and no Reuters, AP or AFP report on these specific recordings. This is a search result, not proof that no response exists. We did not contact Rama, Nufi, SPAK, Yeffet, KAYO or Timak Defence.

The affair is unfolding in a tense context that is not directly related to it. Civil protests known as the flamingo revolution, which arose over interventions in protected areas and opposition to the Kushner development projects, reached their hundredth day on 7 September. Pravda ↗ In February 2026, Rama dismissed Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku in a cabinet reshuffle; she faced accusations of manipulating public procurement. European Western Balkans ↗

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